The Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton, was a prison used to hold U.S. POWs (Prisoners of War) during the Vietnam War. From the beginning U.S. POWs endured harsh conditions with poor food and unsanitary conditions. The Hoa Lo Prison was one of the places that the Vietnamese kept American prisoners in order to interrogate and torture captured soldiers. Severe torture methods were used against the prisoner in Hoa Lo not for the sole reason of gaining military information, but the Vietcong wanted the letters and statements from the soldiers that criticized the U.S. conduct of war and how wonderfully they were treated by the North Vietnamese. These statements would then be used in propaganda in hopes to sway world and U.S. domestic opinion against the war efforts being made by the U.S. The tortures used by the Vietnamese were brutal and cruel and U.S. POWs would usually reach there breaking point and give an anti-U.S. statement. To this day U.S. POWs regret making the statements they made, but they also realize what conditions they were in and that they really had no other option.
Hoa Lo Prison
When the POWs began to be released from the Hoa Lo Prison information about the cruelty and torture they had endured while in prison was released to the U.S. government. The government attempted to downplay the release of this information in hopes to prevent even harsher treatment of prisoners of war if word got out to the Vietcong. The Son Tay prison camp attempted rescue operation was carried out by the U.S. Afterwards most of the POWs from all over the country were moved to Hoa Lo prison so that there would be less prison to be guarded.
Citations:
Lenzi, Iola (2004). Museums of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Archipelago Press. pp. 200 pages
Zinoman, Peter (2001). The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940. University of California Press.
Hoa Lo Prison
The Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton, was a prison used to hold U.S. POWs (Prisoners of War) during the Vietnam War. From the beginning U.S. POWs endured harsh conditions with poor food and unsanitary conditions. The Hoa Lo Prison was one of the places that the Vietnamese kept American prisoners in order to interrogate and torture captured soldiers. Severe torture methods were used against the prisoner in Hoa Lo not for the sole reason of gaining military information, but the Vietcong wanted the letters and statements from the soldiers that criticized the U.S. conduct of war and how wonderfully they were treated by the North Vietnamese. These statements would then be used in propaganda in hopes to sway world and U.S. domestic opinion against the war efforts being made by the U.S. The tortures used by the Vietnamese were brutal and cruel and U.S. POWs would usually reach there breaking point and give an anti-U.S. statement. To this day U.S. POWs regret making the statements they made, but they also realize what conditions they were in and that they really had no other option.When the POWs began to be released from the Hoa Lo Prison information about the cruelty and torture they had endured while in prison was released to the U.S. government. The government attempted to downplay the release of this information in hopes to prevent even harsher treatment of prisoners of war if word got out to the Vietcong. The Son Tay prison camp attempted rescue operation was carried out by the U.S. Afterwards most of the POWs from all over the country were moved to Hoa Lo prison so that there would be less prison to be guarded.
Citations:
Lenzi, Iola (2004). Museums of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Archipelago Press. pp. 200 pagesZinoman, Peter (2001). The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940. University of California Press.